Indiana: How We Figured Out the Optimal Approach to Run Government from Our Couches and Kitchen Tables
Sunil Joe Cudby, Jared Linder · IEEE Technology Policy and Ethics · 2020
As a rapid response to COVID-19, Indiana's governor mandated sheltering the entire state in-place except for essential service providers. Most of the state's agencies were required to leave their offices since they were deemed ‘non-essential’. Historically state employees did not work remotely — with no resources (e.g., computers, virtual private network access) ever being placed in their residences. The state's move to support the majority of workers with remote services was a huge undertaking that needed to be accomplished quickly and without too many fail points as the citizens of the State of Indiana still needed the critical services the state provides. This article is a brief case study of how this challenge was overcome. We will describe how Indiana—both at a state and an agency level—rapidly adapted to the operational challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. By pivoting quickly to novel technology, Indiana enabled more than just the ability for remote work, but also empowered teams to respond with agility to the new environment wrought by the pandemic. This response was only made possible by a strong centralized information technology (IT) presence and a collaborative agency response. We also describe the specific response and outline a successful use case.